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North Carolina reputation suffers with NCAA violations

Rachel George, USA TODAY Sports
6:19 p.m. EDT October 10, 2012

Defensive end Julius Peppers, right, while playing at North Carolina under coach Carl Torbush, left, took some classes to keep his eligibility that had little or no instruction.(Photo: Grant Halverson, AP)

Story Highlights

North Carolina, already under NCAA football sanctions, could have trouble in men's basketball, too.

Four investigations are pending into North Carolina's athletics.

North Carolina has made some changes in staffing and academic programs.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Over more than two years since the University of North Carolina has been dealing with investigations into the school's first major NCAA infractions case since 1961, several people up to the chancellor have resigned or lost their jobs and unwanted media attention has focused on what role athletics should play on a big-time college campus.

Findings from an NCAA investigation included that football players had accepted $27,000 in improper benefits from sports agents and their representatives; that a tutor, Jennifer Wiley, had committed academic fraud in completing work for players as well as providing improper benefits; and that former assistant coach John Blake had received money from an agent, Gary Wichard, to whom he steered UNC players.

The university community looks to move forward with the start of men's basketball practice this week, but continuing academic concerns threaten to impact the school's most beloved sport. A report by The News & Observer in Raleigh last week raises questions about a naval weapons class in 2007 that included several basketball players, suggesting the NCAA might further probe academic irregularities at the school.

Already, the NCAA's Committee on Infractions has found the school failed to monitor its athletic program. In NCAA parlance, that's one of the most serious charges a school can face.

UNC received sanctions in March that included a postseason bowl ban for the 2012 football season and a loss of 15 scholarships and probation over a three-year span. Coach Butch Davis was fired in July 2011, and athletic director Dick Baddour resigned, ending his tenure of more than 40 years at the school.

Chancellor Holden Thorp, who announced he would resign his position at the end of this academic year, suggested more than a year ago that the mounting problems would impact the reputation of the university. But to what degree that has happened remains unclear.

By several measurements, there seems to be little impact. Applications increased 24% for this year's freshman class and are up 10% over this time last year. For the 2012 fiscal year, UNC brought in $287 million in donations to mark its best fund-raising year ever. Donations to The Rams Club, which funds student-athlete scholarships and capital projects, increased to $33 million.

The Blue Zone, built to close Kenan Stadium into a bowl, features luxury boxes that cost $50,000 per year and club seating that ranges from $750 to $2,500 per year, plus the cost of tickets. UNC has sold 94% of the seats, which are attached to the back of the $68 million Loudermilk Center that houses the academic support facilities for athletes.

And the university jumped from 16th to ninth in federal research funding with $545.99 million.

"All of the 200 years of history of building the reputation of the institution isn't gonna be washed away by the misdeeds of a few," said athletic director Bubba Cunningham.

Added Joe Templeton, a distinguished professor of chemistry, "We took great pride in doing things the right way and now we're finding that not everyone was doing things the right way. That's one of the things we're confronting.

"I don't think I would drop it in the jarring bucket. Surprised? Yes. Do we need to take care of it? Yes. Does it change the fundamental flow of education for people passing through here? And my answer there is no."

Changes in staffing, academic programs made

But local media reports raised questions about classes in the Department of African and Afro-American Studies (AFAM), and the university launched a review. The findings released in May showed 54 aberrant classes which were largely populated by UNC athletes — specifically football and men's basketball players — that received little or no instruction.

A review of the three university probes by a committee of three faculty members suggested that the advisors in the Academic Support Program for Student Athletes (ASPSA) steered them to no-show classes to help keep them eligible to compete.

The report of academic fraud was followed closely by the resignation of two top university fund-raisers after it was revealed they made personal trips at the university's expense.

The university's initial investigation into the AFAM department looked at academic irregularities from 2007 to 2011. An investigation led by former North Carolina Gov. Jim Martin and consulting firm Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP, has been given free rein to look for academic irregularities that predate the previous findings and could extend to other departments.

It's likely Martin will find some. In August, the university posted the transcript of Julius Peppers on its website. It was found by an North Carolina State fan and posted to a Wolfpack message board, and Peppers later confirmed that it was his.

It showed that the former standout defensive end remained eligible throughout his career at UNC thanks to high marks in several AFAM classes. Peppers' transcript suggests academic irregularities in the department could stretch back to his time as a football and basketball player there starting in the late 1990s, a fact acknowledged by the school in its initial review of the AFAM department.

Cunningham said the university is keeping the NCAA apprised of developments in its ongoing investigations.

In the meantime, the university has instituted several changes. Before the end of his tenure as chancellor, Thorp is expected to announce stricter academic standards for athletes to enroll at UNC.

The university has made changes to how independent study programs can be administered and how grades can be changed. Staffing changes have been made within the athletic department as well as ASPSA. Stricter policies have been put in place in both that will allow university administrators to more closely monitor the departments.

More NCAA action could be coming

Before the university can truly move forward, it awaits the completion of four ongoing investigations.

The News & Observer reported last week that 30 of 38 students, including six men's basketball players, enrolled in the naval weapons class in the spring of 2007 after its instructor notified ASPSA advisors of its creation.

That, combined with Martin's findings, expected to be released this fall, could prompt the NCAA to return. Jo Potuto, Nebraska's faculty athletics representative to the NCAA and a former member of the Committee on Infractions for nine years, said the enforcement staff could revisit UNC as details emerge.

Speaking generally and without particular knowledge of the case beyond media reports, she said, "You're typically more likely to go back and revisit the more serious the charges are. That being said, academic integrity issues are pretty large violations."

Some UNC professors expressed frustration that public records requests and reporting, specifically by The News & Observer, have forced the university's hand.

"If UNC were more transparent, those stories would not be there," said Lewis Margolis, an associate professor in the school of public health. "(The reporters are) doing their job. We, the university, should be doing its job."

A coalition of local media outlets filed a lawsuit against UNC in 2010 seeking records related to the NCAA investigation and the football program. Citing federal privacy laws, UNC officials resisted the release of many but a judge has ordered the release of several of the records sought by the group.

Campus none too happy about media attention

Whether the problem is limited to a few rogue employees who didn't follow procedures or is indicative of a systemic problem remains a topic of debate.

Many within the administration, athletic department and faculty confine the issues to a very small number of people on a campus with more than 18,000 undergraduate students, including 800 athletes, and more than 3,000 faculty.

Julius Nyang'oro was AFAM's longtime department chairman and was tied largely to the no-show classes and unauthorized grade changes, as was Deborah Crowder, a longtime administrator in the department. Both have retired.

"The major infractions were in football. And then I think in that discovery process, we saw we had a little bit of a lack of oversight in a certain department," said Cunningham. "But I do think that the issues are very, very isolated."

UNC is one of several major universities to face an NCAA investigation or sanctions in the past year. Ohio State, Penn State and South Carolina have all been sanctioned since the start of UNC's case, while Miami and Oregon await the results of investigations on their campuses.

"All you have to do is just read the newspapers for the last couple of years and you'll see that it's national in scope and no university seems immune to these problems," said Hunter Rawlings, president of the American Association of Universities, of which UNC is a member.

Students, faculty and alumni have tired of seeing athletic-related scandals dominating the headlines.

"I think definitely the sanctions came out and it just kept looming over us," said Casey Barth, the football team's kicker. "It was just tough. These things happened a year or two before. We kind of get the feeling of, when's this gonna end?"

Added William Brader, a freshman from Raleigh, "It seems kind of unfair because there are a lot of other universities doing it and we got caught."

Bigger problem than just facing one school

A small but vocal minority sees the problem as part of a larger one systemic in intercollegiate athletics.

Some faculty members have formed the Athletics Reform Group in hopes that UNC's plight can be used to discuss how college athletics has become a billion-dollar business largely on the backs of players in football and men's basketball, the biggest and often only revenue-generating sports for schools. The Tar Heels' $75 million athletics budget for 2011 included more than $47 million in revenue brought in by those two programs.

"What you have is a fundamentally immoral system that many, many good people have to try to work within," said Richard Southall, director of the College Research Sport Institute and associate professor of sport administration at UNC. "It's almost impossible to do it because the problem is saying it's something that it's not. And what it is, we can't really say out loud."

Added Margolis, "If we have to have that revenue model in order to have sports on campus and that revenue model is having a negative impact, a harmful impact on the university, then not only is it important, it's essential to ask is it appropriate for that to be the model?"

That's a discussion university officials intend to have, at least in part, after ongoing investigations are concluded.

Thorp has asked Rawlings to help examine the relationship between academics and athletics at UNC.

"What has been most troublesome to me about this entire scandal, if we're going to call it that, over the last two years, is that it has called into question our institutional decision-making and our priorities," said Jay Smith, an associate history professor and one of the most outspoken critics of the university's handling of the investigations.

"I think we're beginning to repair that damage, but we've still got a long way to go."